On Friday, the White House said President Donald Trump will lift his administration’s plans for a possible crackdown on states that have legalized marijuana after talks with a Colorado senator. On Friday Senator Cory Gardner said he received a commitment from Trump that the rescission “will not impact Colorado’s legal marijuana industry.” Gardner said Trump assured him he would support legislation “to fix this states’ rights issue once and for all.”
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The Complex is located at 307 Park Central East.(Photo11: Andrew Jansen/News-Leader)Buy Photo

Business records and federal court documents link a downtown Springfield concert venue to a multi-state marijuana trafficking conspiracy that allegedly laundered millions of dollars through the live music industry.

Feds say a Utah-based couple built and sustained their music business with drug money before apparently coming to Springfield to help launch a new music venue just off Park Central Square.

In late 2017, The Regency closed.

In its place, The Complex opened.

At about the same time the sign above the door was changing in February, a grand jury was meeting in Utah.

Soon Gordon and Elstein were leasing a warehouse in Salt Lake City where they stored marijuana and cash in two safes, feds say, and later they built a workshop at a California ranch to package weed.

Possibly the biggest payment in the scheme came when a man connected to the conspiracy allegedly drove from Utah to a supplier in California with $2 million in cash in his car — half of which was vacuum-sealed in the shape of the Empire State Building.

At some point Angela Elstein became involved, feds say, by paying drivers, packaging marijuana and handling the books.

In 2009, Gordon and Gabe Elstein formed The Complex, LLC, in Utah and started construction on a concert venue in downtown Salt Lake City, according to federal court documents.

When the News-Leader pointed out that it was Angela Elstein's name on the registration documents for The Complex Live, Thomas said that was probably because the Missouri Secretary of State had not updated its documents.

“We’ve been coming there for years, and my wife and I kind of fell in love with the area,” Gabe Elstein told the Business Journal. “[We] met Gary Thomas, and he introduced us to his operation, and ultimately we made the decision to acquire Regency and bring more shows to the market.”

Thomas again reiterated that he did not sell the Regency, calling it his "baby." He also said Gabe Elstein was misspeaking.